An Engineering PhD Transmigrates to Ancient Times to Build Infrastructure Through the Imperial Exams

[Ding! Your engineering PhD trial card has expired. Next stop: a penniless nobody from a poor family!] Lin Mo never expected that a tunnel collapse wouldn't kill him, but would instead send him crashing into ancient times, where he became an unlucky boy from a family with nothing to his name who had failed the imperial exams three times in a row. As he looked at the leaking roof, his mother faint with hunger, and the one path that could change their fortunes, the imperial exams, he fell silent. Poetry and essay writing? He didn't know the first thing about them! But questions about controlling the Yellow River and designing cities? Now those were right up his alley! While the others filled their exam papers with classical flourishes, he simply laid out engineering plans for waterworks. When pedantic scholars mocked him for his useless contraptions, he built a labor-saving waterwheel that doubled crop yields, leaving the common folk kneeling in gratitude. The county magistrate admitted him as an exception, the great families were furious and moved to suppress him, and even a vice minister of the Ministry of Rites slammed the table and roared, “This boy's unorthodox ways are corrupting the imperial exams!” Facing denunciations from the entire court, Lin Mo brought a stunning model into the palace examination and declared, “Your Majesty, is it empty talk that ruins a nation, or practical work that makes it prosper?” See how a modern engineer uses scientific thinking to crush the ancient imperial exams and forge a path as a poor scholar turned construction genius!